Round One Graphics: Special Awards
Round One Graphics: Special Awards
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Voter's Choice
Best Author
The nominees for Best Author were chosen by the judges.
Judge's Choice:
(Yes, I know she's running the awards but this deserves many, many special mentions regardless of politics!) The piece manages to make convincing, comprehensible and even erotic a relationship between a living person and a 'dead' soul existing only inside her mind; playing with tense and memory yet never losing the reader or over-complicating the situation. It's the most astoundingly original concept, yet it is carried forward with simplicity and grace. And to cap this off, it has the best, most powerfully tragic yet triumphant evocation of Fred's death, which makes the reader experience all the pain and hope of Shells afresh.
This is the sort of fic I want to read over and over again. It had never occurred to me that Kennedy and Dawn could make a good couple, but this story convinced me that not only can the pairing work, it can also be really entertaining!
The characterisation of Kennedy and Vi is superb, and their friendship provides a really nice backdrop to an incredibly fun story.
This fic takes a very familiar element of canon-Buffy and Faith dreams-and uses the format in a way that could fit into canon perfectly while employing original and creative ideas. The strange references and dreamy transition between images is exactly how it's done on the show, but with the bonus of girlsex. And speaking of girlsex-that was some hot stuff. Hoo!
I have a soft spot for Dawn. She's real. Yes, that includes sulking, whining and tantrums. And she turns out awesome. (I also really like Kennedy, so maybe I am defective.)
Not only does "Less Than Real" explore Dawn's issues with being real, it also does it while being hot and with impeccable style.
There's heartbreak and ecstasy and sweetness and comedy in a wonderful mix.
I really should be gushing more but I'm not that good at it. Suffice to say, there were a lot of stories vying for this spot and "Less Than Real" still made it easy to choose.
There's a lot to love about this piece. I love stories with titled vignettes. If you can find the right titles, it can close up a story very nicely. The author has accomplished this beautifully with "Virtue". Religion has always been a big literary turn-on for me, so I love that the overused deadly sins are passed over for the Cardinal virtues. And how heart-wrenching is it to read about these so-called virtues. We all know that Buffy has a lasting impact on Faith, but we don't get to see the lasting impact Faith has on Buffy very often. In this story we get lucky; we see the evolution of their relationship with an unnerving and heavy twist. This fic showcases skill. It's a pleasure to read.
I just loved this. Days later I was thinking about it. So often writers give us AUs that take place in the future with no real maturation of the characters. Here we have a Buffy and Willow whose lives have been shaped by all of the things they've been through (they saved the world- a lot). The weight of their past choices is palpable in this piece. And in the end we have Buffy and Willow, best friends who know eachother so well, and who understand the sacrifices the other has made in her life. Fantastic, just fantastic.
I loved the originality of this piece. One would think that putting Buffy and Fred together believably is impossible, but the author pulled it off stunningly well. Both Buffy and Fred's characterizations were brilliant. Brava!
Mod's Choice:
This totally captures a post-Chosen relationship between Buffy and Faith-the trust issues, the deep connection they've always had pulled together even more by the mutual loss of lovers. The Ocs-Greg and the baby Slayers-are fabulous in their poignant portrayl. It's deliciously plotty, and the plot makes sense in pretty much every way possible. It rides the line between plot detail and beautiful phrasing, and it completely gets the characters in such a subtle, beautiful way.
One of the hallmarks of a truly wonderful fic is that indescribable something that pulls you in, glues you to the screen, wiggling because you have to pee but seriously can't be bothered to get up and go because you're so enthralled (seriously, I'm not the only one who does this, right?). And this fic has it in spades. Wonderful concept, wonderfully executed. It broke my heart to see Faith stripped of her defenses, and poor Buffy, tentatively, hopefully reaching out. 50,000 words sped by in a heartbeat, leaving me aching and breathless when I got to the end. In a word, Wonderful.
In a word: poetry. And utterly heartbreaking. In a major way. Aptly titled, the silence is so tangible that it almost becomes a third character, huge and forboding and hanging like a cloud over Buffy and Satsu's interactions. The intimacy here is breathtakingly written, beautiful and fragile and still so wonderfully bittersweet. It made me ache, deep down inside, how Satsu snatches up the scraps she's given, even in the face of the knowledge that she'll never truly have what she wants. And to an angst-whore like me, that...is kinda like magic.
Stellar Supporters:
